UNESCO Sets Guidelines for AI Use in Courts

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) presented the Guidelines for the Use of AI Systems in Courts and Tribunals, a document that sets out principles and recommendations for the development, adoption, and use of AI systems in the judicial sector.

The document comes at a time of increasing adoption of AI-based tools by courts and legal practitioners, mainly for support tasks such as case management, document search and classification, automated translation, hearing transcription, and assistance in drafting legal texts.

According to the organization, while these technologies can help improve efficiency and expand access to justice, their implementation without clear governance frameworks may pose risks to the functioning of judicial systems. In this regard, the document proposes a set of minimum guidelines aimed at ensuring that the use of AI does not undermine essential principles such as due process, equality before the law, impartiality, and judicial independence.

Among its key points, the guidelines state that AI systems should be used as supportive tools and not as substitutes for legal reasoning or human judgment. In particular, the guidelines warn about the limitations of generative language models, whose operation is based on probabilistic combinations of linguistic data rather than an understanding of the legal meaning of cases.

The guidelines also recommend that judicial authorities conduct periodic assessments on how their members use these technologies, to identify good practices, prevent misuse, and detect potential negative impacts.

UNESCO also highlights the need to adopt specific measures to protect personal and confidential data, especially when using systems developed by external or open-access providers. It also highlights the importance of preventing algorithmic biases that may disproportionately affect groups in situations of vulnerability.

Finally, the document emphasizes that the incorporation of AI into justice systems should be gradual, transparent, and human-centered, without delegating judicial functions or allowing automated systems to exert decisive influence over judicial decisions.